It was Sunday, and Harry was alone with Hermione in the common room. He had been recounting to her once more what had happened when he had looked into the Mirror of Erised. Harry thought that he had perhaps hinted to Hermione that he really wanted to go and find it again, but she had shut him down completely, her happy mood suddenly growing very serious.

"Harry, you can't go looking for that mirror. You'll go mad, or...or you'll get yourself killed. Please listen!" Hermione begged.

"Okay." Harry sighed,"I promise."

"Good." Hermione smiled and hugged him.

***********

"Of course! How could I be so stupid?"

Ron, Harry and Hermione were sitting in the common room, discussing Nicholas Flamel. It was Monday evening. The first day of term was over, and Harry was already exhausted.

"Sorry?" Ron gave Hermione a quizzical look.

"Flamel! He was an alchemist, wasn't he Harry?"

"Er...yeah, I think so. That's what the Chocolate Frog card said."

Hermione's face lit up,"Brilliant!" She leapt up and scurried up the stairs.

"What's wrong with her?" Ron chuckled.

Harry didn't reply. He was beginning to feel the stress of school fall back onto him, and he did not like it at all. They already had three homework assignments - two of which were long essays - and, until Hermione's outburst, had not found anything else out about Nicholas Flamel. To top it all off, Harry was longing for just one more look at that mirror.

"I never thought to look in here!" Hermione burst back into the room looking very flushed. She dumped a humongous dusty book onto the little table in the corner of the room at which the two boys were sitting,"I got this out of the library weeks ago for a bit of light reading."

"This is light?" Ron's mouth fell open.

Hermione shot him a glare before flipping eagerly through the book's pages,"Here it is!" She placed her finger on a line of text as she read it aloud,"Nicholas Flamel is the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone!"

"The what?" Harry and Ron chorused.

"Oh, honestly, don't you two read? Listen, the ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The Stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal-"

"Immortal?" Ron gaped at the book.

Hermione sighed,"It means you'll never die." She said irritably.

"I knew that..."

"There have been many reports of the Philosopher's Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence is owned by Mr. Nicholas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera-lover. Mr. Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight). See?" Hermione beamed up at them. The boys continued to stare blankly back up at her.

"No." Ron mumbled.

Hermione leaned across the table and lowered her bossy voice to a whisper,"That's it! The Philosopher's Stone! That's what the dog on the third floor is guarding. That's what's underneath the trapdoor. That's what Snape's after."

***********

"Harry, where have you been?" Harry spun around in his sweaty Quidditch robes to see a very flushed yet concerned Hermione standing before him.

"We won, we won!" Ron jogged up behind her,"I gave Malfoy a black eye and...um...Hermione, you can uncross you fingers now, the match is over."

"Oh." Hermione looked at her hands. Each finger was crossed somewhat uncomfortably across another. She untangled them and stared back up at Harry expectantly.

"Well, I was putting my broom back in the shed when I heard Snape and Quirrell talking. Snape asked him if he'd found out how to get past 'Hagrid's beast' yet. Quirrell didn't look like he wanted to talk so Snape said that Quirrell wouldn't want him as his enemy. Quirrell said he didn't know what Snape meant but Snape seemed pretty convinced that he did. Snape started talking again but then, something made a noise right by me, so I didn't hear much, but I heard him say something about Quirrell's 'little bit of hocus-pocus' and that he was waiting. Then he said they'd have another little chat when Quirrell had decided where his loyalties were."

"So, we were right. Snape's after the Stone - why wouldn't he be? It turns metal into gold and makes people live forever - but I reckon that there's more guarding it than that dog. Spells, enchantments, challenges, there could be anything! Quirrell must have done some anti-Dark Arts spell which Snape needs to get through-"

"So what you're saying," Ron cut Hermione off,"is that the Stone's only safe as long as Quirrell stands up to Snape?"

Hermione nodded gravely.

"We're doomed!" Ron cried.

Neither Harry nor Hermione could bring themselves to object.

***********

Over the next few weeks, however, Quirrell proved them very wrong. He had looked much paler and thinner, but not in the sort of despair that one would be in if they had just helped someone to steal something so powerful as the Sorcerer's Stone.

"Hermione, the exams are ages away!" Ron insisted as he watched Hermione colour-code her revision notes.

"Ten weeks! You really ought to start studying too, you know."

Ron ignored her.

So much homework had been piled onto them that the Easter holidays hadn't been very much fun at all. The trio had seen Hagrid in the library once, looking rather suspicious, and told him that they knew who Nicholas Flamel was and that Fluffy the dog was guarding a Philosopher's Stone. Hagrid had seemed reasonably astounded.

"Er...alrigh' then," he stammered,"I'll...erm...well, I'd best be off-" he hurried from the room, sheltering something from view behind his back.

"I'm going to see what section he was in," Hermione stood up and strode over to the area that Hagrid had been searching through.

"What d'you think was behind his back?" Ron asked Harry, closing his History of Magic textbook, seemingly glad for an excuse to stop revising.

"I don't know. Could have been a-"

Hermione slammed two books onto the table and whispered,"Dragons! Hagrid was looking up dragons! Here, look at these: Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland; From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keeper's Guide!"

"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon. He told me the first time I met him." Said Harry.

"But...that's illegal, isn't it? Dragon keeping in Britain?" Ron gaped.

"Yes." Hermione nodded darkly,"Dragon-breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709, everyone knows that. It would make it rather easy for Muggles to spot us if we were keeping dragons out in the open. You can't tame dragons either, it's dangerous."

"Yeah! You should see the burns Charlie got from Romania! But there's still some wild ones here. The Ministry's done a job hushing them up though. Our lot have had to keep putting spells on Muggles who've seen them, to make them forget."

"So what on earth is Hagrid up to?" Hermione asked.

***********

"Oh, come on, Hagrid, you might not want to tell us, but you do know, you know everything that goes on around here." Hermione spoke in a warm, flattering voice,"We only really want to know what's guarding it. We wondered who Dumbledore trusted enough to help him, apart from you."

Ron and Harry shared a grin as Hagrid's chest swelled up. It was very late, but they were sitting in Hagrid's hut, and Hermione - it seemed  - had just persuaded him to tell them who was guarding the Stone.

"Alrigh', I don' s'pose it'll hurt. Okay, some of 'em did enchantments...let's see...Professor Sprout...Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall...Professor Quirrell and Dumbledore did sommat himself, o' course. Hang on, an' Professor Snape"

"Snape?"

"Yer not still on abou' tha', are yeh?" He peered at them,"Look, Snape helped protect the Stone, why would he be tryin' ter steal it?"

Despite the importance of their conversation, something seemed to have caught Hermione's eye,"Hagrid," she said uneasily, pointing at the fire,"what's that?"

Harry followed Hermione's trembling finger. Dangling above the roaring fire was a large black orb.

"Ah, that...tha's an, er..."

"Whoa" Ron gazed longingly at it,"Where did you get it, Hagrid? Dragon eggs are really hard to get hold of!"

"Won it off o' some bloke in the village las' nigh'. Seemed pretty eager ter get rid o' it, mind you. Said I was doin' 'im a favour."

"What about when it's hatched? What are you going to do then?" Hermione's eyes were wide.

"Raise 'im, o' course! Been readin' all 'bout it, I 'ave! Know how an' when ter feed 'im an' all the diff'ren' eggs too! This one tha' I got 'ere's a Norwegian Ridgeback, the little fella!"

"But, Hagrid," Hermione's eyes were still locked onto the egg,"you live in a wooden house."

**********

"Thanks Hedwig." Harry unfolded the little note that the owl had been carrying. It was from Hagrid. He had only written two words: It's hatching.

The trio were down there in minutes and, after a lot of coaxing, the dragon had hatched. Although it looked rather dangerous, Harry couldn't help but wonder how much Hagrid cared for it.

"Hagrid?"

"Yes, Harry?"

"What's he called?"

"Oh, Norbert." Hagrid smiled affectionately.

"Norbert?" Ron gave the dragon an incredulous look.

"Wha'? Thing's got ter 'ave a name-"

"Harry!" Hermione was shaking Harry's arm.

"What?"

"Malfoy!" Hermione pointed at the window.

Harry looked just in time to see a flash of dazzling white-blonde hair disappear.

"He knows!" Harry cried.

"Eh?"

"He knows about the-" Hermione caught the look on Hagrid's face,"Norbert! He knows about Norbert!"

"What do we do?" Ron panicked.

"We can't keep Norbert here, Hagrid, it's too dangerous now that he knows." Harry insisted.

"But...but..."

"Hagrid," Hermione said gently,"you don't want anything to happen to him. Or you, for that matter. Look, Malfoy's gone to tell one of the professors that we're here and that you've just hatched a dragon. You won't exactly be everyone's favourite person after they know that, will you?"

Hagrid mumbled something about injustice. Harry suddenly had an idea,"Charlie!" He turned to face Ron.

"You've lost your marbles, mate, I'm Ron!"

"No!" Hermione rolled her eyes,"He means we could send Norbert to Charlie in Romania. You did say he was a dragon-keeper, didn't you?"

"Oh yeah-"

"No!"

"Hagrid..."

"Fine."

"Great!" Ron said cheerily,"I'll send him a letter - Ow! Norbert bit me!"

***********

It only took just over a week of sly grins from Malfoy for Charlie's reply to arrive. He instructed them to meet him up at the tallest tower with Norbert at midnight.

Every day, Harry and Hermione would visit Ron in the hospital wing, as Norbert's bite seemed to be growing worse by the day. The trio began devising a plan. Harry and Hermione would use Harry's invisibility cloak - with baby Norbert underneath - to sneak up there at exactly quarter-to-midnight.

Once there, they would wait for Charlie's friends to arrive. Then, only one of them would get out from under the cloak with Norbert, so that nobody saw a huge crowd of people up there and grew suspicious. After a rather heated discussion, they eventually decided that it would be Harry that handed Norbert over.

Ron was desperate to go with them, but they decided it would be too risky if Madam Pomfrey found that he was missing. He was very sulky after that.

***********

"Malfoy's got detention, I could sing!" Hermione did a little jig under the cloak.

"Don't." Harry advised her. They had just passed Malfoy trying to persuade Professor McGonagall that Harry was sneaking around the school with a dragon. This was, of course, the truth, but the livid professor was having none of it. She had dragged him off to see Professor Snape.

"Are you ready, Harry?" Hermione whispered as they reached the top of the staircase.

"Yeah." Harry took the weight of the heavy crate that they were carrying together from her,"I think so."

"I'll be right behind you, go on, they're here, look!"

Harry looked up. Four broomsticks were slowly circling down towards them. Charlie's friends were a cheery lot; after Harry had explained why they could only see him and not Hermione, they had shown him how to put Norbert into a harness between two of their brooms so that he would still be comfortable, but easy to take with them.

It wasn't long before they had given Harry high-fives and flown off into the darkness. Harry nearly jumped out of his skin when he turned around to see a furious Filch in the doorway to the tower.

"Well, well, well. We are in trouble!"

Mrs. Norris hissed, circling her owner's feet. Harry didn't have a clue where Hermione was, but he hoped that she had fled for her life once she had seen Filch. Harry could have screamed in anger when he heard Hermione's voice break the silence.

"He's not alone!" She flung the invisibility cloak off of herself dramatically.

As he spun around to see her, a crooked yet malicious grin spread across Flich's distorted face,"You're both coming with me, now!"

The pair trudged through the castle after Filch. Hermione had kicked the invisibility cloak under a little stone wall on the top of the tower so that Filch didn't see it. Harry repeatedly made furious eye contact with her, trying to telepathically ask her why on earth she'd turned herself in when Filch hadn't had a clue that she was there. Hermione only gave him an equally angry look.

Professor McGonagall was even angrier than she had been with Malfoy earlier. When they entered, Neville was already getting an earful from her about being up so late. He had, it seemed, been trying to warn them that Malfoy was on their tail. After a severe telling-off, McGonagall took fifty house points off of each of them and gave them all detentions for the next evening with Malfoy.

She let the weeping Neville go first, but held Harry and Hermione back to tell them that she thought she knew why they were out of bed: they had tipped Malfoy off about them having a dragon to get him into trouble for trying to get them into trouble and they had been out to see if they had succeeded. Even though this was entirely untrue, they went with it as they didn't want to get Hagrid into any trouble. Looking back on it, however, Harry was sure that their punishments would have been much worse if they had told her the truth.

As they ran back to their dorms, Harry asked Hermione why she hadn't let him take the whole punishment and gotten away clean herself.

"Harry," she rolled her eyes,"we're a team, okay? And teams don't just let one person take the blame, that's not right. I mean, we still did what we set out to do. Charlie's got Norbert and Hagrid's not getting fired. Besides, it's just one detention, isn't it?"

"And one hundred and fifty points taken away from Gryffindor, if you include Neville. And the cloak is still up there."

Hermione groaned, before letting a small smile onto her face,"Well, at least we know where it is. We could always just go back and get it sometime. It could be worse. It's alright, Harry. We're in this together."

"Thanks."

Neither of them spoke until they were in the common room, but Harry's smile hadn't left his face. Hermione was right; they were a team, and they could take one little detention together.

***********

"Wait, what did you go and get yourselves bloody detentions for?" Ron asked.

It was the night after the incident, and Harry and Hermione were with Ron in the common room before they had to leave for their detention. He had been allowed out earlier that day, much to his joy.

"Because," Hermione replied irritably,"Filch came upstairs and caught us, didn't he, Harry?"

"Yeah, he did. Neville and Malfoy are with us too, though. Oh yeah, and all four of us lost fifty house points each for our house, so we won't exactly be too popular with everyone at the moment."

"What? Oh come on!" Ron smacked his head on his hands,"Who's the detention with?"

"We don't know yet." Harry shrugged,"Hopefully not Snape."

"We'd better be off, Harry. It's five to eleven." Hermione sighed.

"See you later, Ron." Harry said gravely, standing up.

"Bye," Hermione gave him a sad little wave.

"Enjoy yourselves!" Ron chuckled, probably glad that he hadn't gone with them after all.

After they'd found him at the Entrance Hall, Filch led them around for a long time before, to their surprise, they went outside. Harry and Hermione exchanged confused looks as they shivered, but neither one of them dared to ask Filch where they were going.

Then, however, they saw something that surprised them even more: Neville, Malfoy and Hagrid were sitting outside his hut, talking away. Well, Hagrid was. Neville looked as though he was going to be sick and Malfoy looked rather disgusted that he was outside so late at night.

"Here they are, Hagrid!" Filch spat.

"Alrigh', you two?" Hagrid looked a little embarrassed and avoided both of their gazes.

"I suppose so. You?" Hermione asked politely.

"I'm...I'm gettin' over it..." He sniffled before pulling himself together and clapping his hands eagerly,"Righ', shall we make a star'? We're goin' in ter the Forest!"

"The Forest?" Malfoy's eyes grew to the size of golf balls,"But, there's...there's beasts in there! Werewolves, I've heard them!"

"Ain't nothin' gonna hurt yeh if yer with me or Fang, nothin' a' all."

They all walked into the Forest after Hagrid. Filch was humming to himself as he wandered back to the castle, Neville was sobbing, Malfoy looked terrified that he was going to die, but Harry and Hermione - who had full faith in Hagrid's promise of protection - were just freezing cold. They had not thought that they would be going outside, therefore they were only wearing jumpers, which, at eleven o'clock at night at the start of Spring, was not a good idea.

Hagrid explained to them that they would be looking for unicorn's blood. He told them that he had found one dead the previous week and that silvery trails of goo-like blood were their key to finding the one that had been injured. Hagrid explained that it was a very dangerous task, and that it would be best if they split off into two teams.

"Alrigh', then. Harry, Hermione, I trus' yeh'll both be okay with Fang, won' yeh? I don' really want ter let this one," he nodded at Neville, who was still whimpering,"out o' me sight, an' I think I'll 'ave ter keep an eye or two on tha' one there." He looked at Malfoy, who was sneering at Neville's sobs.

"That's okay, Hagrid," Harry watched Neville and Malfoy uncertainly,"we'll be fine."

Hermione didn't look so sure.

"Yeh'll 'ave Fang with yeh, o' course." Hagrid assured her,"Take this ol' lamp, so yeh can see alrigh', an' if sommat does go wrong, jus' send some red sparks out o' one o' yer wands and we'll come an' find yeh straightaway."

"Th...thanks." This didn't seem to have had the desired effect on her. Harry took her hand confidently and they crept down the left path with Fang trailing behind. The unicorn blood was thick and there was lots of it. The pair followed it carefully, making sure not to trip on any roots or stumps.

"Do you think a werewolf could be killing the unicorns?" Harry asked Hermione as they climbed on a log to get over a small stream.

"I wouldn't think so. They're not fast enough. Thanks." Harry handed her back the lantern he had been holding whilst she balanced on the log.

"No problem. Do you think one could, though? If it got the chance, would it?"

"It would probably try, Harry, but unicorns are very powerful. The thing that's killing them must be as powerful as them to even hurt one. There's a lot of blood here. We can't be too far away if it's this badly hurt, the we'll be able to - MOVE!" She shoved Harry hard in the chest so that he fell behind a tree with her on top of him,"Sorry!" She whispered, pulling herself up.

Fang was running back across the stream, terrified. They peered over a branch and Harry saw what Hermione had seen: a unicorn lay still on the ground in a clearing a few feet away from them. Something black was slithering around it, stopping every so often to drink up a bit of the unicorn's blood.

"What's that?" Harry whispered almost inaudibly. The creature, however, had seemed to hear him. It turned approached them. Harry could not move for fear. The pain that pierced his head was unlike he'd ever felt before - it felt like his scar was on fire - half-blinded, he staggered backwards.

"Harry!" Hermione screamed as he fell to his knees. She knelt beside him and held his arm tightly.

It took a minute or two for the pain to pass, but, when it did, he looked at Hermione, who had tears forming in her eyes,"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Me? Harry, I'm fine, what about you?" Hermione pulled him to his feet.

"I don't know-"

"Are you two children alright?" A figure was approaching them. At first, he thought it was a horse, but, when it moved into a patch of light, Harry could tell that it was a centaur.

"Yes - thank you - what was that?" Harry replied, brushing the dirt off of himself.

The centaur didn't answer. It was staring at Harry's scar.

"You're the Potter boy." The centaur's voice was soft and gentle,"You had both better get back to Hagrid. The Forest is not safe at this time, especially for you. And who, may I ask, might you be?" He peered at Hermione, who was still clutching Harry's arm.

"I...I'm Hermione Granger. It's nice to meet you." She replied timidly.

"Can you two ride? It will be a lot quicker this way." He lowered himself down to let them climb on,"I'm Firenze. Come on, quickly now."

***********

Harry and Hermione waved goodbye to Firenze as they pondered over what he had just told them. Two other centaurs had come to them and yelled at Firenze for having humans on his back.

He had said that Lord Voldemort had been drinking the unicorn's blood and wanted the Philosopher's Stone just so that he wouldn't die.

"Harry?" Hermione asked,"Do you...um...do you reckon that Voldemort is trying to come back? Become human again?"

"Possibly. I don't know, really. I mean, it would make sense, but we can't be certain of it."

"No." Hermione shook her head,"Harry? I'm scared."

"Don't worry." Harry assured her,"The detention should be almost over, we can leave soon-"

"No! Not of the Forest!" She snapped,"Of Voldemort."

"Oh..." Harry looked down,"...me too."

To their surprise, a familiar voice boomed from their left.

"There yeh are! I should never o' left yeh with Fang, he's such a coward!" Hagrid was pulling Neville, Malfoy and Fang up over the hill,"Are yeh alrigh'?"

"I think so..." Hermione said.

Harry wiped his forehead with his hand,"Just about..."

"Good! Well, we'd bes' be off, then. We're all done 'ere. Didn't find tha' unicorn, mind you."

"We did, Hagrid!" Hermione piped up.

"Wha? Where's the little fella?"

"Oh...um...somewhere over there, I think." Hermione pointed behind her vaguely.

"Alrigh', well, I'll go an' find 'im some other time, let's go now, all o' yeh!"

With that, all five of them trailed silently out of the Forest, a suddenly hyper Fang bounding ahead.